I have been watching the American landscape fly past me for the last 12 hours and I feel inspired.  This is going to be a stream-of-consciousness post as I daydream on a road trip to Colorado.

We left Minneapolis at 4 AM, got into our car, and we have two hours to go until we reach Denver.  I’m serious.  This is what the sunrise looked like as we drove across Iowa early this morning:

Our afternoon was spend cruising across the flat lands and sunny skies of Nebraska:

There’s something wonderful, refreshing, and meditative about taking the slow path through life.  This is why we like road trips.  You get to explore inward into the soul, and outward as you watch the American landscape pass by.  The slow path can make you appreciate the journey more.

It sometimes just feels good to drive on the road for long distances, and think through the deepest thoughts that make the foundations of our lives.

Here are a few wealthy thoughts I had as we traveled toward the Rocky Mountains:

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If your life is difficult, maybe it’s God telling you that he wants you to become a warrior.  Embrace being a poet and artist no matter what career you’re in.  Careers only make you money; but poets and artists create meaning and purpose in the labor of life.  It’s meaning and purpose that make you happy; not money.  A soul is like a vehicle; A soul only works if you maintain it, steer it, and put it in motion.  Have a unique edge about yourself.  Use that edge to cut open the veins of awesome opportunities in life.  Don’t just pass through the bladder and intestines of life like a piece of waste.  God is attracted to those who love, create, and put action into achieving the right things.  It is easy to find God when you do the right things.  Every penny earned is a powerful testimony that you chose to do something with your life.  Don’t waste that testimony.  Do great, challenging, and meaningful things to become wealthy.  It doesn’t hurt to have great profit margins when you do these things.  If you expect perfection out of yourself, you are imagining a fantasy that is not true. Accept your reality, understand it, and make peace with it.  Mastering your reality is the only way to improve your life.  There is currently too much waste being produced in America.  I’m talking about emotional, spiritual, financial, and idea waste.  Train your mind to rebel against wasteful activities.  Love activities that produce value and meaning for yourself and others.  If you can learn to do what God wants you to do with your life, you can feel like the wealthiest person in the world no matter how much money you have.  Don’t owe or be in debt.  Debt is a prison where you have to sacrifice your dreams in life for someone else’s dreams for you. Everyone has a desire to be someone, even if it’s wrong.  Learn how to make correct decisions, and then help and inspire other people to make the correct decisions in their lives.  Whatever you think and do repeatedly, you will become.  Really take time to examine how and why you think, so you know how to become the person you want to be.  Money is never your purpose.  Money is a tool to help you find your purpose.  Find your purpose by serving, helping, and abandoning selfishness and greed.  You will be amazed by the angels you will meet, and opportunities that will find you when your goals are selfless and aimed at a greater good.  Saving money is a quantifiable achievement.  Defining a unique mission and purpose in life is unquantifiable.  The secret to wealth is that the unquantifiable experiences in life are what inspire the greatest feelings of wealth.  If you’re not happy, you can stop it at any moment.  But you have to choose to do something different.  Choosing to do something new is the hardest part to change your life.  So many people could be so much wealthier, if they simply chose to try something new and do something different with their life.  That’s all it takes:  be willing to change when a better lifestyle and way of thinking comes along.

As I wrote that last sentence, my wife Amanda, just said, “There they are.”

I looked up as she was driving, and she was right:

The Rocky Mountains were rising up out of the flat landscape in front of us.  It’s always an exciting moment when you first see the first sight of the mountains after being in a car for 13 hours and living in the Midwest most of your life.

Tomorrow we will drive up in them and explore, and push our bodies and minds to the limit as we ski them.  But not every day is meant for incredible experiences in high altitudes.  Some days, like today, are simply for enjoying life at a slower pace, and exploring the deepest thoughts we think about that create the foundation to our lives.

What are some of the thoughts that create the foundation of your life?

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